Thirty-six employees of civil society organisations, who were arrested on Wednesday on allegations of attempting to illegally announce results of the 2023 harmonised elections, appeared in court yesterday and were granted bail at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts.
They will be back in court next week to answer to charges
of contravening the Electoral Act which prohibits the announcement of election
results by anyone who is not mandated by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) to do so.
In a statement earlier yesterday, National police
spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said: “The Zimbabwe Republic
Police, on 23rd August 2023, arrested 36 suspects following a raid at various
safe houses and hotel rooms set up by certain individuals and civic
organisations, including the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Election
Resource Centre (ERC) and Team Pachedu, for subversive intentions.
“The arrest followed a tip-off that the said persons had
set up bases and gathered equipment to use for tabulating voting statistics with
the intention of unlawfully announcing election results and transmitting same
to foreign country for unknown reasons.
“The coordinators of the information were hiding at Holiday
Inn Hotel in Harare and were in the process of feeding information to a location
in The Grange, Harare, where the Presidential Election results were to be have
been announced using a VPN System through a so called “Apollo” concept.”
Asst Comm Nyathi said the fake results were to be announced
on August 24, 2023 at the instigation of the opposition CCC party.
“This action was meant to pre-empt Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC), which is the sole constitutionally obligated board to
announce election results,” he said.
“As the Zimbabwe Republic Police, we do not regret
arresting people who engage in criminal and unlawful activities but in the
spirit of promoting national harmony during our election season, the State will
not oppose bail.”
Zimbabweans went to vote on Wednesday in a largely peaceful
environment.
There are concerns about inflammatory statements that are
being made by some opposition leaders, especially meant to reject the poll
result if it does not go in their favour.
A raid was conducted on Wednesday night at Holiday Inn
Harare, Belgravia, Milton Park and at a property in the Grange area resulting
in the arrest of the suspects.
As a result, a total of 93 smart cellphones, 38 laptops,
two smart watches, two modems, one WIFI router, one external hard drive, a
Nokia mobile phone handset (kambudzi), one printer, 1 X 24 port switch, various
computer chargers, power back-up unit and headphones were recovered.
Police said the equipment was being used to unlawfully
tabulate election voting statistics and results from polling stations
throughout the country.
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